Telecom ministry asks Trai for details of Reliance Jio users

The telecom ministry has written a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), seeking details about Reliance Jio's 15 lakh users ahead of a formal launch of the company's services.TNN | August 17, 2016, 09:00 IST

New Delhi: The telecom ministry has written a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), seeking details about Reliance Jio's 15 lakh users ahead of a formal launch of the company's services. The ministry has also asked if the company has filed a tariff plan.

This follows a preliminary departmental inquiry into the company's test launch, people close to the development told TOI . "Trai may like to examine if Reliance Jio is complying with its tariff order," said a senior government official referring to the letter. "DoT (department of telecom) is trying to ascertain whether Reliance Jio has started commercial operations in what they call a test period and whether they have filed tariff orders," the official said. The size of the test sample of Reliance Jio had raised concerns, officials in the ministry said. They said the department also wanted to know whether Jio had been trying to acquire customers from other operators through number portability.

Officials said they would like Trai to ascertain the scope of Reliance Jio's test period. "Trai has the domain to look at them. Are they in a test period, or is the test over? We are asking them whether Reliance Jio is complying with the test procedures that Trai has laid out and also with the tariff orders," said an official.

Officials said the ministry was also looking into possible revenue generation by Reliance Jio through the sale of its handsets and select partnerships with companies such as Samsung. The issue being looked into relates to any "possible avoidance in reporting of revenues" through the "sale of bundled handsets and other devices", a senior official said.

"Any effort to avoid the declaration of revenues can result in violation of licensing conditions," he added.

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